Biking Denver's Creekside Trail

Creekside Trail is a single track offshoot from the Sand Creek Regional Greenway. Though only a mile long, it adds a little variety to your ride if you are so inclined.

You will encounter a few areas with loose sand so be prepared...

You will also find several places to return to the main trail if you need to abort.

The trail offers nice scenery and a bit of a change form the main trail.

Biking Colorado's Rio Grande Trail

I began at Glenwood Springs' Two River Park.  The Roaring Fork Transportation Authority manages the greatest portion of the Rio Grande Trail which runs from Glenwood Springs to Aspen,  42 miles of continuous multi-use trail protected from vehicular traffic except at intersections. 

The Rio Grande Trail is a rails-to-trails project which is built on the Aspen Branch of the historic Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. Train operations ceased and in 1997 the corridor was purchased with a combination of funding by local governments, Great Outdoors Colorado, Pitkin County Open Space and Trails, and the Colorado Department of Transportation.

From the Two Rivers Park in Glenwood Springs, the trail crosses the Colorado River...

...and then briefly hugs the Roaring Fork River as it heads to Carbondale...

 The trail then parallels Highway 82 to Carbondale before heading east along 82 to Aspen. Near the start, a narrow gravel single track trail for mountain bikes parallels the paved trail.

Trail users will find a scattering of picnic tables and benches along the route but there is no potable water. Vault toilets are found at various places. 

For those wishing to bike portions of the trail, you can also take an RFTA bus to and from various trailheads between Aspen and Rifle. The buses have bike racks but you will have to pay a nominal fee to bring your bike in addition to the bus fare.

Biking Casper, Wyoming's North Platte River Trail

This 10 mile paved trail runs from Morad Park on the west side of Casper to North Platte Park on the east, switching sides of the river via several bridges -- both bike-pedestrian bridges and road bridges. The best views of the river of course are from those bridges.

Rest benches and picnic areas are available along the trail, too.

Five whitewater kayak features have been created along the eastern end of the trail, but unfortunately none were being used as I biked.

They even offer several places where you can borrow life jackets to paddle or play in the water.

A BP oil refinery had been located along the river. After its removal, BP spent $160 million on cleanup and redevelopment. Over six years and using 300 workers, they removed 200+ miles of buried pipes, excavated, crushed, and reused 300,000 tons of concrete, installed nearly 100 groundwater pumping wells, drove 8000 linear feet of steel sheeting into the ground as a protective barrier, excavated over 500,000 cubic yards (40,000 truckloads) of waste materials and impacted soil, and graded and shaped over a million cubic yards of material to build the Three Crowns public golf course!

The result is a beautiful riverfront redeveloped for recreational use.

The trail takes riders by Fort Caspar which offers a museum and outdoor exhibits. There is even a campground.

As I biked the trail, I realized how wonderful it was to see mountains in the background as I rode -- not something I ever see back home on my Chicagoland trails!

I found the best places to park to access the trail are Morad Park (2800 SW Wyoming Blvd.) and Amoco Park (1007 W. 1st St.).

Biking Nebraska's Cowboy Trail

The Cowboy Trail is one of the longest in the country at 189 miles, with another 126 miles planned. The trail follows the route of the old Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. In 1992, the corridor was no longer being used and was bought by the Rail-to-Trail Conservancy which then gave it to the State of Nebraska to develop the trail. In 2001, it was designated a National Recreational Trail and is now a gateway to the American National Trail System which is being developed as a 4000 mile cross-country trail system.

A few short segments are paved but most are crushed gravel.  I often spotted the trail alongside US 20 as I drove through Nebraska heading to Valentine. Much of the trail is a narrow gravel path seen below, often along the highway, and I never saw anyone on the trail, but considering its 189 mile length, that does not seen strange.

In Valentine, I parked at the picnic area along the trail, which is concrete through town.

Below is a view of the famous trestle, the trail's big drawing feature, as seen from the US Highway 20 bridge. The Niobrara National Scenic River is below the 150 foot tall metal trestle.

Here's the 1/4 mile long trestle surface...

Here's a view of the Niobrara River from the trestle...

It's difficult to get a view of the trestle from atop the trestle, but here you get an idea of its 15 story height...

The trail is also quite scenic...

Just a couple miles east of Valentine, Nebraska, is a parking area off US 20 which allows you to walk a quarter mile or so to reach the top of the trestle if you don't want to bike the trail or walk a mile from town to the trestle.

Biking Iowa's Cedar River Trail in Cedar Rapids

This paved 12.6 mile trail extends through downtown Cedar Rapids as it travels from Blairs Ferry Road NE to 76th Avenue SW. The trail then continues as the Hoover Trail, and then connects to the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, making a nearly 58 mile trail. It is mostly flat with a few gradual elevation gains. Both ends are paved though the middle third is crushed limestone.

I began at Tait Cummins Park and headed toward downtown Cedar Rapids along the Cedar River seen below (downtown buildings are in the distance beyond the bridge.)  Then I encountered a detour where it looked like they were building or enlarging a levee for flood protection so I headed away from town. 

Heading north, the scenery became more pastoral. At Blairs Ferry Road I was actually on the southern end of the Cedar Valley Nature Tail and the Hoover Nature Trail.

Suburban subdivisions, farms, and farm field are passed as you head north.

Biking Waterloo, Iowa's Cedar Valley Nature Trail

This trail uses the route of the old Waterloo, Cedar Falls, and Northern interurban railroad from the early 1900s, an all-electric railway with depots about 15 miles apart.  The trail runs 52 miles, joining the Cedar River Trail in Cedar Rapids. The 20 miles at the trails' start and end are paved, with the middle crushed limestone. 

I parked at Forest Road at the bridge over the Cedar River, located off I-380. (Take River Forest Road exit, turn right on Gilbert, right on Grand which becomes River Road, goes under the expressway to the parking area.)

Here's the river as seen from the bridge...

Lovely woods predominate along the trail...

This interesting observation area overlooks a nice pond...

The refurbished 1912 Gilbertville Depot was used for passengers and freight...

Biking Webster City, Iowa's Boone River Trail

I began at the southern end at Briggs Woods Park (2450 Briggs Woods Road) and ended at Nokomis Park. The trail took me mostly along the scenic river but also included forest, farmland, and prairies.

The 10 foot wide concrete trail weaves along the river, occasionally departing briefly and then returning. 

It often occupies flood plain, and the embankment along the side of the trail (seen below) is made of flood-caused dirt and mud which has bee plowed off the trail. As I biked, I saw crews using a  front-end loader to remove the recent mud.

New riprap rock was obvious in places, too, added as additional protection against the next floods.

Signs along the trail explained how large areas of the surrounding land are used for storm/flood water storage during flood conditions, and the plantings used are chosen to absorb flood waters without being destroyed by the flood waters.

I was passing through town on my way west and this trail provided a nice respite during a long driving day.

Colin Fletcher

Colin Fletcher was born in Wales, educated in England, and served 6 years in the Royal Marines during World War II. After four years farming in Africa, he moved to Canada and then in 1956 to California, where he hiked the deserts and mountains from Mexico to Oregon,  detailed in this book...

... and in 1967 he was the first man to hike/bushwack the length of the Grand Canyon, off trail, below the canyon's rim, a two month journey. The book details this spiritual odyssey and oozes of his philosophical ponderings. 

He is credited with inspiring the explosion of backpacking in the country with the publication of this landmark book in 1968, in which he asserted that the best roof is the sky, and in which he eloquently and authoritatively shared his sage advice, hard-earned firsthand knowledge, and outspoken opinions. There have been 4 editions of this book, each updated to stay current.

The book's third edition was my guide and inspiration when I began backpacking in 1998. Over the years, I went on 60+ backpack trips in 52 different forests and wilderness areas across America. It was a bit expensive initially outfitting a family of four with equipment, but we got our money's worth, and I continued solo backpacking or with a buddy after the family trips ended.

In 1989, Fletcher shared his secret worlds and how we can break free in our minds by hiking the wilderness...

His 1989 raft trip down the entire 1700 miles of the Green and Colorado Rivers stirred my desire for such adventures and led me to undertake trips in rafts, kayaks, canoes, and houseboats covering 777 of those same miles.

To ascertain the springs which were the source of the Colorado River, he backpacked into Wyoming's Wind River Range, above Upper and Lower Green Lakes. My oldest son and I retraced that backpack in 1998.  

Many are unaware that until 1921, the Colorado River began in Utah at "The Confluence" where the Green River (from Wyoming) met the Grand River (from Colorado.) The name "Colorado River" was derived from the Colorado Plateau through which it flowed as it carved the Grand Canyon. The Grand River emanated from Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and gave names to such places as Grand Lake and Grand Junction, Colorado. In 1921 (coincidentally, the year Fletcher was born), due to intense lobbying, the Colorado Legislature renamed the Grand River as the Colorado River. But the facts remain that the Green River is 300 miles longer than the Grand and also drains a larger area, and geographers thus consider it the "master stream" and its headwaters in Wyoming as the source.

As Fletcher neared the end of this river journey, he felt very poorly on a hike up to a high point and went back to his camp to recover. Five months later, well after this adventure, an arterial blockage required a coronary bypass, thus explaining why he had felt "crummy, pretty deathly" for a few days.

At the age of seventy-nine in 2001, Fletcher was struck and seriously injured by a vehicle while walking to a town meeting near his home in California. His survival was attributed to his excellent physical condition. Within a year of the accident, he was back on his feet and walking daily. Fletcher died in 2007 as a result of complications from a head injury sustained from being hit by the car six years earlier.